Lentil Curry Soup w/ Coconut Shavings

Heart warming, healthy, vegan meal for the quarantine.

Ingredients to serve 4
- 1 large carrot (diced)
- 1 large potato (diced)
- 1/2 cup of red lentils (soak the lentils overnight or at least for as many hours as you can)
- 1/2 cup of yellow lentils
- 1 large tomato (diced)
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 1 inch of ginger (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 cup coconut milk or coconut yogurt
- 1 tbsp coconut shavings
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter or ghee
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds (or cumin powder)
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds (or coriander powder)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp garam masala (if you are not tempering the oil)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of fresh coriander leaves for garnishing (finely chopped) - you can use parsley too if you prefer that taste
- 2 cups of water

For tempering the oil (optional)
(if you do this you can skip the garam masala)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 black cardamom
- 4 green cardamoms
- 4 cloves
- 5 black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves 
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (or you can use Bengali paanch phoron)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (or you can use Bengali paanch phoron)

Preparation (1 hour start to finish)
In a hot wok/pan/pot, add the oil and the tempering ingredients and wait till the seeds start spluttering.  Add the diced onions and stir for 2 minutes on medium high heat.  Add the chopped ginger and garlic.  Fry for another 2 minutes.  Add the diced tomatoes and fry on high heat for another 4 minutes.  You want a thick paste. In order to aid this process, add the 1/2 the salt and 1/2 the dry spices.  Once the "oil separates" - I've never actually understood what this means, but what you should look for is the mixture becoming a pulpy paste.  Now, add the carrots and potatoes and the rest of the salt and dry spices and fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Now add the lentils and fry for another minute.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Add the water and 1/2 the coconut milk (or yogurt) and give it all a good stir.  Bring to a boil and cover and let cook for 20 minutes.  Add the rest of the coconut milk and coconut shavings and half the chopped cilantro and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add more water/coconut milk if needed.  Before serving add the rest of the cilantro and the butter/ghee (and the garam masala powder if you didn't temper) and stir.  It's ready to eat!

Serve with rice or pao or naan.

Veg. bhaji burger

These veggie burgers are amazing!  I love a good meat burger like anyone, but these were out of the world.

Ingredients to make 4 patties
- 3 medium potatoes (boiled, peeled, and mashed)
- 1 medium red onion (sliced)
- 1 large carrot (long grated)
- 1 bunch of cilantro (roughly chopped)
- a small fist full of spring onion greens (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- 3 table spoons of gram/chickpea flour (besan)
- 2 table spoons of water
- 1 tea spoon of cumin powder
- 1 tea spoon of coriander powder
- 1 tea spoon of red chili powder
- 1 tea spoon of turmeric powder
- 1 tea spoon of salt
- 1 tea spoon of black pepper
- 1 tea spoon of chaat masala (optional)

For the rest of the burger
- 4 Hawaiian buns or soft toastable burger buns (toasted)
- 4 small poppadoms (crushed)
- Mango salsa - I have a great recipe here
- Mint-cilantro yogurt paste or mint chutney if you have it
- A nice piece of iceberg lettuce or some other crunchy green of your preference

Prep and cooking
Put all the ingredients for the patties together and kneed them well.  You could also leave the besan out and then coat the patties with it before frying if you want.  Make into 4 patties about an inch thick.  

Put a bit of olive oil on a hot pan and set the burgers to fry - about 5 minutes on each side on medium high heat.  In the mean time, toast the burger buns and microwave the poppadoms and crush them.

Take some cilantro, mint, green chili, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper and a couple of heaped spoons of yogurt and blend it together to make the yogurt chutney.

Putting it all together
1. Take a spoon of the yogurt chutney and put it on the burger base bun.  
2. Crunchy green leaf of choice
3. Sprinkle some crushed poppadoms
4. Place the burger patty on top
5. A dollop of the mango salsa or mango chutney
6. Put another spoon of yogurt on the top bun

Eat! 

Mango salsa

Making mango salsa at home is pretty easy and delicious.  It goes well on almost everything as a condiment.

Ingredients to serve about 4, but of you have more just store it in a jar in the fridge:

- 1 large mango, ripe - look for creasing around the stem and give to the touch (diced)

- 1 medium to large red onion (diced) - you can also add some spring onion greens if you want that flavor

- 1 small to medium red bell pepper (diced)

- 1 bunch of cilantro (finely chopped)

- 1 bunch of mint (finely chopped)

- 5 cherry tomatoes (seeds removed and diced)

- the juice of 1 lemon or lime or 1/2 of each

- 1 tsp of olive oil

- Finely chopped green chili or jalapeno (optional)

- A pinch of kosher salt, or rock salt - fruit and salt is a great combo

- A pinch of fresh ground pepper

- A pinch of cayenne pepper - even if you skip the jalapeno peppers, you don't want to skip this, the mix of salt, sweet, sour, and spicy work really well together.

Mix it all up together and let it sit at least an hour in the fridge before serving so all the flavors can blend together.